634 



Fishery Bulletin 97(3), 1999 



20 



15 - 



10 -J 



June cohort 



July cotiort 



n = 439 



c 



20 



June cohort 



May 



June 

 Hatching date 



July 



Figure 8 



Hatch date frequencies of age-0 red snapper, Lutjanus 

 campechanus. pooled over all dates from 1994 and 

 1995, A three day moving average was applied before 

 plotting. 



(Bromley, 1989; Rijnsdorp and Vanleeuwen, 

 1992; Rogers, 1994). In 1994, there were fewer 

 fish but faster growth rates than those in 1995, 

 and in 1995 the early May cohort showed the 

 slowest growth rates, probably from colder 

 temperatures. This scenario suggests that if red 

 snapper spawn early (May), temperature may 

 play an important role. As the season progresses into 

 July and August, temperature increases, settlement 

 increases, and competition for food and shelter may 

 become the limiting factors, such that later 

 spawnings in August have lower survival. 



The inner shelf habitat in the northeast Gulf of 

 Mexico, particularly the location 13 km south of 

 Mobile Bay, Alabama, should be considered an im- 

 portant nursery area for age-0 red snapper from 

 July through September. Future research should 

 address mechanisms that help to define this red snap- 

 per nursery habitat, and back calculation methods 

 could be used to compare the relative contributions 

 of various within-year cohorts to subsequent year 

 classes. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank Jason Lee for help in field collections and 

 otolith preparation. We also thank Karen Belcolore 

 for data entry and for typing the manuscript. This 

 study was funded by NOAA, NMFS, MARFIN grant 

 number USDC-NA47FF0018-0. 



Literature cited 



Baughman, J. L. 



1943. The lutjanid fishes of Texas. Copeia 43:212-15. 

 Bradley, E., and C. E. Bryan. 



1975. Life history and fishery of the red snapper I Lu//a«u.<: 

 campechanus) in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: 1970- 

 1974. Proc. 27th Annu. Gulf Caribb. Fish. Inst, and 17th 

 Annu. Int. Game Fish Res. Conf 27:77-106. 



